Stress, microstructure and mechanical properties of graded multilayer tetrahedral amorphous carbon films

Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films deposited using a filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) system, have high intrinsic stress which limits their application as protective coatings. To reduce the film stress and to improve the adhesion, a multilayer structure is deposited at a gradient substrate negative bias from 1500 V to 80 V. This paper investigates the stress, microstructure and nano-mechanical properties of graded multilayer ta-C film on Si substrates. Compared with that of single-layer films deposited at optimised bias, the graded multilayer film has low stress without a decline in hardness and Young’s modulus. Microstructural evaluation of the multilayer film using visible Raman spectra shows that the average content of the sp³ bonds of the multilayer film remain at a high level. Nanoscratch testing illustrates favorable scratch resistance and good adhesion of the multilayer film. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation confirms the collapse of the film surface along the scratching trace. Finally, deposition on single crystal germanium substrates of a durable coating ∼ 1100 nm thick, and composed of three graded multilayer films is demonstrated. PACS 81.05.Uw; 81.15.Jj; 68.65.Ac; 68.55.Nq; 68.60.Bs     

Effect of ECR-assisted microwave plasma nitriding treatment on the microstructure characteristics of FCVA deposited ultra-thin ta-C films for high-density magnetic storage applications

There are higher technical requirements for protecting layer of magnetic heads and disks used in future high-density storage fields. In this paper, ultra-thin (2 nm thickness) tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films were firstly prepared by filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) method, then a series of nitriding treatments were performed with nitrogen plasma generated using electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) microwave source. Here it highlighted the influence of nitrogen flow and applied substrate bias voltage on the structural characteristics of ta-C films during the plasma nitriding process. The chemical compositions, element depth distribution profiles, physical structures and bonding configurations of plasma-nitrided ta-C films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and UV-vis Raman spectroscopy. The experimental results show that the carbon nitride compounds (CN_x) are formed in nitrogenated ta-C films in which the N content and its depth distribution depends on bias voltage to large extent rather than N₂ flow. The N content of nitrogenated ta-C films can reach 16 at.% for a substrate bias of −300 V and a N₂ flow of 90 sccm. With increasing nitrogen content, there is less G peak dispersion and more ordering of structure. Furthermore, appropriate nitriding treatment (substrate bias: −100 V, N₂ flow: 150 sccm) can greatly increase the fraction of sp³ and sp³C-N bonds, but the values begin to fall when the N content is above 9.8 at.%. All these indicate that suitable ECR-assisted microwave plasma nitriding is a potential modification method to obtain ultra-thin ta-C films with higher sp³ and sp³C-N fractions for high-density magnetic storage applications.     

不同能级加速过滤电弧沉积四面体非晶碳膜的结构和性能

采用过滤阴极真空电弧技术，通过施加0—2000 V衬底负偏压使沉积离子获得不同能级的入射能量，在单晶硅上制备了四面体非晶碳薄膜.拉曼光谱分析表明，薄膜的结构为非晶sp³骨架中镶嵌着平面关联长度小于1 nm的sp²团簇.原子力显微镜研究表明：在低能级、富sp³能量窗口和次高能级，薄膜中sp³的含量越多，其表面就越光滑，应用sp³浅注入生长机制能够圆满地解释薄膜表面形态与离子入射能量之间的关系；但在高 关键词： 四面体非晶碳 过滤阴极真空电弧 能级     

Correlation between substrate bias, growth process and structural properties of phosphorus incorporated tetrahedral amorphous carbon films

We investigate the growth process and structural properties of phosphorus incorporated tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C:P) films which are deposited at different substrate biases by filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique with PH₃ as the dopant source. The films are characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, residual stress measurement, UV/VIS/NIR absorption spectroscopy and temperature-dependent conductivity measurement. The atomic fraction of phosphorus in the films as a function of substrate bias is obtained by XPS analysis. The optimum bias for phosphorus incorporation is about −80 V. Raman spectra show that the amorphous structures of all samples with atomic-scaled smooth surface are not remarkably changed when PH₃ is implanted, but some small graphitic crystallites are formed. Moreover, phosphorus impurities and higher-energetic impinging ions are favorable for the clustering of sp² sites dispersed in sp³ skeleton and increase the level of structural ordering for ta-C:P films, which further releases the compressive stress and enhances the conductivity of the films. Our analysis establishes an interrelationship between microstructure, stress state, electrical properties, and substrate bias, which helps to understand the deposition mechanism of ta-C:P films.     

Influence of sp 3 fraction on the field emission properties of tetrahedral amorphous carbon films formed by magnetic filtered plasma stream

Electron field emission properties of tetrahedral amorphous carbon films (ta-C) with various sp³ fractions, [sp³]/([sp²]+[sp³]), prepared by magnetic filtered plasma deposition system, were investigated. The ta-C films were deposited on (100) n-Si wafer with a resistivity of 0.01–0.02 cm in a substrate bias voltage V_b range from +20 V to -80 V. The relative fraction of sp³-bonded carbon in these films was qualitatively and quantitatively estimated by a fitting of the Raman and XPS spectra, respectively. Results show that ta-C films of high sp³ fraction, more than 80%, can be formed with a substrate bias voltage V_b in the range from -10 to -50 V. A remarkably low turn-on field of about 1.7 V/m was observed for these samples. For V_b outside this range, the sp³ fraction is lower. The surface of such ta-C films was found to be smooth and uniform from the images of atomic force microscopy. The sp³ fraction of the sample is believed to be the main factor affecting field emission properties of ta-C films. PACS 79.70; 78.30; 73.90.+f     

Superior tribological properties of an amorphous carbon film with a graphite-like structure

Amorphous carbon films with high sp² concentrations are deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering with a narrow range of substrate bias voltage. Field emission scanning electron microscopes (FESEMs), high resolution transmission electron microscopes (HRTEMs), atomic force microscopes (AFMs), the Raman spectrometers, nano-indentation, and tribometers are subsequently used to characterize the microstructures and the properties of the resulting films. It is found that the present films are dominated by the sp² sites. However, the films demonstrate a moderate hardness together with a low internal stress. The high hardness of the deposited film originates from the crosslinking of the sp² clusters by the sp³ sites. The presence of the graphite-like clusters in the film structure may be responsible for the low internal stress. What is more important is that the resulting films show excellent tribological properties with high load capacity and excellent wear resistance in humid atmospheres. The relationship between the microstructure determined by the deposition condition and the film characteristic is discussed in detail.     

The effect of applied negative bias voltage on the structure of Ti-doped a-C:H films deposited by FCVA

Ti-doped hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were deposited on Si(1 0 0) substrates by a filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) method using Ar and CH₄ as the feedstock. The composition and microstructure of the films were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and IR spectroscopy. The internal stress was determined by the radius of curvature technique. The influence of the bias voltage on the microstructure of the as-deposited films was investigated. It was found that the graphite-like bonds was dominated in the Ti-doped DLC film deposited at 0 V bias voltage. When bias voltage was increased to −150 V, more diamond-like bond were produced and the sp³ content in film reached the maximum value, after which it decreased and more graphite-like bonds feature produced with further increase of the negative bias voltage. The compressive internal in the Ti-doped DLC films also exhibited a maximum value at −150 V bias voltage. IR results indicated that CH bonded intensity reduced, and H atoms bonded with C atoms were substituted for the Ti atoms as the negative bias voltage increasing. All the composition and microstructure change can be explained by considering the plasma conditions and the effect of negative bias voltage applied to the substrate.     

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic study of nitrogen incorporated amorphous carbon films embedded with nanoparticles

The effect of substrate bias on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study of nitrogen incorporated amorphous carbon (a-C:N) films embedded with nanoparticles deposited by filtered cathodic jet carbon arc technique is discussed. High resolution transmission electron microscope exhibited initially the amorphous structure but on closer examination the film was constituted of amorphous phase with the nanoparticle embedded in the amorphous matrix. X-ray diffraction study reveals dominantly an amorphous nature of the film. A straight forward method of deconvolution of XPS spectra has been used to evaluate the sp³ and sp² contents present in these a-C:N films. The carbon (C 1s) peaks have been deconvoluted into four different peaks and nitrogen (N 1s) peaks have been deconvoluted into three different peaks which attribute to different bonding state between C, N and O. The full width at half maxima (FWHM) of C 1s peak, sp³ content and sp³/sp² ratio of a-C:N films increase up to −150 V substrate bias and beyond −150 V substrate bias these parameters are found to decrease. Thus, the parameters evaluated are found to be dependent on the substrate bias which peaks at −150 V substrate bias.     

椭偏法表征四面体非晶碳薄膜的化学键结构

采用自主研制的双弯曲磁过滤阴极真空电弧(FCVA)技术,在不同衬底负偏压下制备了四面体非晶碳(ta-C)薄膜。通过分光光度计和椭偏(SE)联用技术精确测量了薄膜厚度,重点采用椭偏法对不同偏压下制备的ta-C薄膜sp3 C键和sp2 C键结构进行了拟合表征,并与X射线光电子能谱(XPS)和拉曼光谱的实验结果相对比,分析了非晶碳结构的椭偏拟合新方法可靠性。结果表明,在-100V偏压时薄膜厚度最小,为33.9nm;随着偏压的增加,薄膜中的sp2 C含量增加,sp3 C含量减小,光学带隙下降。对比结果发现,椭偏法作为一种无损、简易、快速的表征方法,可用于ta-C薄膜中sp2 C键和sp3 C键含量的准确测定,且在采用玻璃碳代表纯sp2 C的光学常数及拟合波长选取250～1700nm时的椭偏拟合条件下,拟合数值最佳。     

Properties of boron and phosphorous incorporated tetrahedral amorphous carbon films grown using filtered cathodic vacuum arc process

This paper reports the electrical, mechanical, structural and field emission properties of as grown and also boron and phosphorous incorporated tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films, deposited using a filtered cathodic vacuum arc process. The effect of varying boron and phosphorous content (up to 2.0 at.% in to ta-C) on the conductivity (σ_D), activation energy (ΔE₁), hardness, microstructure, emission threshold (E_turn-ON) and emission current density (J) at 12.5 V/μm of ta-C: B and ta-C: P films deposited at a high negative substrate bias of −300 V are reported. It is observed that both boron and phosphorous incorporation leads to a nearly an order increase in σ_D and corresponding decrease in ΔE₁ and a slight increase in hardness as compared to as grown ta-C films. In the case of field assisted electron emission, it is observed that E_turn-ON increases and J decreases. The changes are attributed to the changes in the sp³/sp² ratio of the films due to boron and phosphorous incorporation. The effect of boron on ta-C is to give a p-type effect whereas the effect of phosphorous gives n-type doping effect.     

Microstructure and tribological performance of self-lubricating diamond/tetrahedral amorphous carbon composite film

In order to smooth the rough surface and further improve the wear-resistance of coarse chemical vapor deposition diamond films, diamond/tetrahedral amorphous carbon composite films were synthesized by a two-step preparation technique including hot-filament chemical vapor deposition for polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and subsequent filtered cathodic vacuum arc growth for tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C). The microstructure and tribological performance of the composite films were investigated by means of various characterization techniques. The results indicated that the composite films consisted of a thick well-grained diamond base layer with a thickness up to 150 μm and a thin covering ta-C layer with a thickness of about 0.3 μm, and sp³-C fraction up to 73.93%. Deposition of a smooth ta-C film on coarse polycrystalline diamond films was proved to be an effective tool to lower the surface roughness of the polycrystalline diamond film. The wear-resistance of the diamond film was also enhanced by the self-lubricating effect of the covering ta-C film due to graphitic phase transformation. Under dry pin-on-disk wear test against Si₃N₄ ball, the friction coefficients of the composite films were much lower than that of the single PCD film. An extremely low friction coefficient (∼0.05) was achieved for the PCD/ta-C composite film. Moreover, the addition of Ti interlayer between the ta-C and the PCD layers can further reduce the surface roughness of the composite film. The main wear mechanism of the composite films was abrasive wear.     

氩离子轰击对四面体非晶碳膜内应力和摩擦系数影响的研究

利用磁过滤真空阴极电弧技术制备了sp³键大于80%的四面体非晶碳(ta-C)薄膜, 通过冷阴极离子源产生keV能量的氩离子轰击ta-C薄膜,研究了氩离子轰击能量对ta-C薄膜结构, 内应力以及耐磨性的影响.通过X射线光电子能谱和原子力显微镜研究了氩离子轰击对薄膜结构 与表面形貌的改性,研究表明,氩离子轰击诱导了ta-C薄膜中sp³键向sp²键的转化, 并且随着氩离子轰击能量的增大,薄膜中sp²键的含量逐渐增多, 薄膜内应力随着氩离子轰击能量的增大逐渐减小.氩离子轰击对薄膜的表面形貌有较大影响, 在薄膜表面形成刻蚀坑,并且改变了薄膜的表面粗糙度,随着氩离子轰击能量的增大, 薄膜的表面粗糙度也会逐渐增大.通过摩擦磨损仪的测试结果,氩离子轰击对薄膜的初始摩擦系数影响较大, 但是对薄膜的稳定摩擦系数影响较小,经过氩离子轰击前后的ta-C薄膜的摩擦系数为0.1左右, 并且具有优异的耐磨性.     

Tetrahedral amorphous carbon films as a frequency-increasing interlayer of surface acoustic wave devices with a ZnO/Si configuration

Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films deposited using filtered cathodic vacuum arc technology have been applied to the interlayer of surface acoustic wave devices with a ZnO/Si configuration. The phase velocity in the multilayered structure was analyzed in the first instance by theoretical calculations and was then measured by means of a network analyzer. It has been shown that the ta-C interlayer between piezoelectric film and Si substrate can strikingly increase the phase velocity of the surface acoustic wave. The greater the interlayer thickness is and the higher the content of the sp³ hybridization is, the faster surface acoustic wave propagates. However, the increment of phase velocity gradually decreases with increasing interlayer thickness. It was confirmed in this paper that the measured values of the phase velocity as a function of the interlayer thickness agree with the theoretical calculations.     

Bias voltage effect on the structure and property of chromium copper-diamond-like carbon multilayer films fabricated by cathodic arc plasma

Chromium copper-diamond-like carbon (Cr:Cu)-DLC films were deposited onto silicon and by cathodic arc evaporation process using chromium (Cr) and copper (Cu) target arc sources to provide Cr and Cu in the Me-DLC. Acetylene reactive gases were the carbon source and activated at 180 °C at 13 mTorr, and a substrate bias voltage was varied from −50 V to −200 V to provide the (Cr:Cu)-DLC structure. The structure, interface, and chemical bonding state of the produced film were analyzed by transmission electron microscope (TEM), IR Fourier transform (FTIR) spectra, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that the Cr-containing a-C:H/Cu coatings exhibited an amorphous layer of DLC:Cr layer and a crystalline layer of Cu multilayer structure. The profiles of sp³/sp² (XPS) ratios corresponded to the change of microhardness profile by varying the pressure of the negative DC bias voltage. These (Cr:Cu)-DLC coatings are promising materials for soft substrate protective coatings.     

The protective properties of ultra-thin diamond like carbon films for high density magnetic storage devices

With the increase of magnetic storage density, the thickness of the protective diamond like carbon (DLC) film on the surfaces of head and disk is required as thin as possible. In this paper, the structure, mechanical properties and corrosion and oxidation resistance of ultra-thin DLC films are investigated. The ultra-thin DLC films were deposited by using filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique. The exact thickness of the ultra-thin DLC film was determined by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). Raman analysis indicates that the ultra-thin DLC film presents ta-C structure with high sp³ fraction. In the wear test, a diamond tip was used to simulate a single-asperity contact with the film surface and the wear marks were produced on the film surface. The wear depths decrease with film thickness increasing. If the film thickness was 1.4 nm or above, the wear depth was much lower than that of Si substrate. This indicates that the ultra-thin DLC film with thickness of 1.4 nm shows excellent wear resistance. Corrosion tests in water and oxidation tests in air were carried out to investigate the diffusion barrier effect of the ultra-thin DLC films. The results show that the DLC film with thickness of 1.4 nm provides adequate coverage on the substrate and has good corrosion and oxidation resistance.     

非晶金刚石薄膜的X射线反射研究

利用过滤阴极真空电弧系统制备了不同衬底偏压下非晶金刚石薄膜,分别采用X射线反射法测定了相应的非晶金刚石膜密度,分析了薄膜密度与沉积能量之间的变化规律．建立了薄膜密度随衬底偏压的变化曲线。研究发现在-80V时非晶金刚石膜密度存在最大值3．26g／cm^2,随着偏压的增大和减小,薄膜的密度都相应的下降;当衬底偏压加到-2000V时,密度减小到2．63g／cm^2,相对于密度的最大值变化较小。通过薄膜sp^3能态杂化含量与密度的简单比例关系,近似推算出非晶金刚石膜中sp^3能态的含量最高可达80％以上。     

金刚石薄膜的结构特征对薄膜附着性能的影响

在不同实验条件下，用微波等离子体化学气相沉积设备在硬质合金(WC+6%Co)衬底上沉积了 具有不同结构特征的金刚石薄膜.用Raman谱表征薄膜的品质和应力，用压痕实验表征薄膜的 附着性能，考察了薄膜中sp²杂化碳含量、形核密度、薄膜厚度对薄膜附着性能 的影响.结 果表明：sp²杂化碳的缓冲作用使薄膜中sp²杂化碳的含量对薄膜中 残余应力有较大的影 响，从而使薄膜压痕开裂直径统计性地随sp²杂化碳含量的增加而减小；仅仅依 靠超声遗 留的金刚石晶籽提高形核密度并不能有效改变薄膜与硬质合金基体之间的化学结合状况，从 而不能有效提高薄膜在衬底上的附着性能；在薄膜较薄时，晶粒之间没有压应力的存在，开 裂直径并不明显随厚度增加而增加，只有当薄膜厚度增加到一定值，晶粒之间才有较强压应 力存在，开裂直径随厚度的增加而较为迅速地增加. 关键词： 金刚石薄膜 附着性能 2杂化碳')" href="#">sp²杂化碳 成核密度 薄膜厚度     

Substrate effects on the microstructure of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films

In this work, plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition was used to prepare hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (a-C:H) on different substrates over a wide range of thickness. In order to observe clear substrate effect the films were produced under identical growth conditions. Raman and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopies were employed to probe the chemical bonding of the films. For the films deposited on silicon substrates, the Raman I_D/I_G ratio and G-peak positions were constant for most thickness. For metallic and polymeric substrates, these parameters increased with film thickness, suggesting a change from a sp³-bonded hydrogenated structure to a more sp² network, NEXAFS results also indicate a higher sp² content of a-C:H films grown on metals than silicon. The metals, which are poor carbide precursors, gave carbon films with low adhesion, easily delaminated from the substrate. The delamination can be decreased/eliminated by deposition of a thin (∼10 nm) silicon layer on stainless steel substrates prior to a-C:H coatings. Additionally we noted the electrical resistivity decreased with thickness and higher dielectric breakdown strength for a-C:H on silicon substrate.     

Exchange bias of Co/CoO multilayers deposited on nanosphere array

The [Co/CoO]₅ multilayer nanocap arrays are fabricated on the colloidal sphere arrays which are prepared on the Si substrate by the self-assembly technology. Compared to bilayer film, the H_EB of multilayer film is larger than that of the bilayer film. The increase of H_EB for multilayer should be ascribed to the interface increase between FM and AFM layers. In the multilayer film structure, H_EB of the nanocap array is bigger than that of the flat film, which is attributed to the decrease of FM layer thickness, the decrease of grain size, and the increase of structural defects caused by curved substrate. And the typical step is observed in flat, and the step is reduced significantly in the nanocap array due to the enhancement of interfacial coupling between neighbor FM layers. For the [Co/CoO]₅ multilayer nanocap array, H_EB increases first, and then decreases when CoO sublayer thickness changes. When CoO sublayer thickness is 15?nm, H_EB reaches its maximum. This result may be related to the topography of nanostructure multilayer on curved substrate.     

高能氮离子轰击对四面体非晶碳膜的表面改性和摩擦系数影响的研究

利用过滤阴极真空电弧技术制备了sp³键含量不小于80%的四面体非晶碳(ta-C)膜.利用冷阴极潘宁离子源产生不同能量的氮离子对制备的ta-C薄膜进行轰击,通过X射线光电子能谱和原子力显微镜对薄膜表面结构与形貌进行分析研究.研究表明,随着氮离子的轰击能量的增大,薄膜中的CN键结构略有增大,形成了轻N掺杂;同时,在薄膜表层发生了sp³键结构向sp²键结构的转化;薄膜的表面粗糙度在经过氮离子轰击后从0.2 nm减小至0.18 nm,然后随着轰击能 关键词： 四面体非晶碳 X射线光电子能谱 摩擦系数